2024 High School Football

The Mooney Team High School Football Report: Willcox beats Tanque Verde behind Landon Ward’s five touchdowns

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Three rushing touchdowns from Landon Ward and a solid run defense contributed to Willcox’s 20-0 lead in the first half on Friday at Tanque Verde. (Kevin Murphy/All Sports Tucson)

Landon Ward had five touchdowns Friday night as Willcox won 41-20 on the road against No. 9 Tanque Verde in a 2A San Pedro matchup.

“Landon is like instant speed,” Willcox head coach Jeston Lotts said. “His vision’s so good.”

Lotts  — who is in his first season with Willcox after serving in the same role at Parker High School for 10 seasons — says Ward is one of the most unique running backs he’s coached.

“I’ve had only one other back in my career that can cut and keep the same speed, and he can do that. So, it’s like instant offense, you know? No matter where he’s at on the field,” he said.

Ward had 14 carries for 179 yards with four touchdowns and 10 tackles. He also returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

He says it was one of the best games he has ever had, and it wouldn’t have been possible without his offensive line.

“It’s up there. It’s definitely up there,” Ward said of his performance. “It was exciting. I couldn’t do it without my line. They were blocking pretty good for me.”

The road win on Friday for Willcox follows a 42-40 region loss at No. 6 Bisbee last week. On Oct. 25, the Cowboys also travel to 2A San Pedro opponent Benson, which has one region loss and is coming off a 48-6 win over Palo Verde two weeks ago and a 63-0 win on Friday over Santa Rita.

“We told our young men, Bisbee is such a good team, and all of our top teams in our region, we were going to have to play away this year, and that’s tough to do,” Lotts said. “They learned a lot. We weren’t mentally ready to play last week. We just learned. That’s all we can do, and continue to get better each week.”

Three of Ward’s four rushing touchdowns, including a 76-yard run, came in the first half to give Willcox (4-3, 3-1) a 20-0 lead heading into the third quarter.

Ward says the team was dialed in following the loss to Bisbee last week.

“We came ready to play, and I don’t think they were expecting us to be that good because people don’t give us credit,” Ward said. “We lost to Bisbee. It was a tough game, but we came out to fight.”

Tanque Verde (4-3, 2-2) cut it to 20-13 on a 31-yard rushing touchdown from Delon Harrison with 11:50 to go in the fourth quarter. Ward returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown to extend the Cowboys’ lead to 27-13.

Willcox extended its lead to 34-13 on a 33-yard rushing touchdown from Ward with under eight minutes remaining. Tanque Verde and Willcox traded touchdowns late in the game on a 10-yard rushing touchdown from Harrison and a 12-yard touchdown run from Ismael Cuevas.

Harrison’s three touchdowns in the second half, including a 55-yard touchdown run on the opening possession of the third quarter, kept Tanque Verde in the game, but a 20-point deficit at halftime was too much to recover from.

Cuevas led the team with 19 total tackles (13 solo tackles and six assists). Lotts says he was one of the reasons the defense limited Tanque Verde’s offense for much of the game.

“Well, we saw Cuevas just be a monster,” Lotts said. “We always knew how good he is. He just does things that cover up a lot of stuff.”

Cuevas says the defense worked well together and didn’t let mistakes distract them by “staying as a group, supporting each other out there, being happy for each other and not being selfish.”

Lotts specifically credited the defensive line for limiting Harrison in the first half.

“We didn’t want number 24 (Harrison) to go off, and he kind of did in the second half. So, we were a little upset about that,” he said. “But, it was basically, they were not going to run the ball against us, and then, attempt to do what we could against their pass, and they (Tanque Verde) came out, and they did well running the ball in the second half, so kudos to them.”

Big play

Kaleb Cooke returned an interception to Tanque Verde’s 23-yard line late in the second quarter.

On Friday, Willcox hosts Palo Verde (3-4, 1-3) and Tanque Verde plays at Bisbee (6-1, 4-0). Both games are at 7 p.m.

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